ordinary person, I told Ted, but if I become the only woman in the world who speaks Kitiâthe only white woman, I mean!âthen thatâll be something a bit extraordinary about me. Ted just said I was the only woman in the world whoâd thought fit to get married to him and that was quite enough extraordinariness to be getting on with. Thatâs his idea of a compliment! Isnât he funny!
Iâm not surprised no one else talks Kitiâitâs a pig! To begin with, you have to sing it, almost, âcos the same word means different things according to how you pitch it, tiny changes I could hardly hear at first, high to low or low to high, or with a dip in the middle, and so on. And most of the words have strong and weak forms, and you say things quite differently if youâre talking to a friend or a strangerâoh, lots more than just words and grammar to learn. Hausaâs childâs play compared.
For instance, counting. First you go to twenty on your fingers and toes. They all have different names, no pattern at all. The first twenty are man numbers, and the next twenty are baboon numbers, and then fox numbers, then spider numbers, then snake numbersâthoâ spiders have eight legs and no fingers or toes and snakes donât have anything at all! But at least youâve got to a hundred, so you put a stick on the ground and stand on it to remind yourself and start again! Even Elongo agrees itâs funny.
Heâs a dear. So intelligent and thoughtful. He quite understands that if I teach him English he mustnât put on side about it, specially in front of Ted. If thereâs one thing Ted hates itâs the educated native coming up from Lagos in a suit and a loud tie and talking law-court English and pretending he knows anything about how the real Africans think and feel! Iâm teaching Elongo A1 English. No slang. I read ten pages of Esmond before lessons to get me in the mood. (Good for me, too!)
Been up a week now, but hardly done any painting. Something called the harmattan started while I was illâyou look out in the morning and you think âOh, fog!â but it isnât. Itâs dust, blowing all the way down from the desert. Cold like fog, thoâ, specially after malaria. Couple of days back there was a fishing family down on our bank so I went down to do a picture and got them to pose for me. They were v. nice and smiling about it but after theyâd been standing still twenty minutes their poor teeth were chattering and they were pale grey all down one side! It made them look like photographic negatives! N.g. for painting. Anyway Iâm taking things easy âcos Iâve got to get myself properly well âcos next week weâre going on tour!
Itâs a bit trickyâme going, I mean. Thereâs absolutely no reason why I shouldnât, Ted says, but he ought to inform Mr de Lancey at Birnin Soko only he doesnât want to. You see, âcos of de L. and Ted being on opposite sides about KB and things heâs bound to try and do Ted down over anything Ted wants. He did his dâest to stop me coming at all, for a start, and now he just might try and think of some reason why I shouldnât go on tour. Ted canât go straight to Kaduna over de L.âs head, either. He has to be terribly careful about that. Even if it was something important, theyâd come down on him like a ton of bricks. He told me an awful story about an A.D.O. over in Gombe who discovered there was trouble coming and told his D.O. but the D.O. was lazy and didnât do anything so the A.D.O. wrote to the Resident. The Resident agreed with the A.D.O. and when he reported to Kaduna all they were interested in was the A.D.O. breaking the rules. They reprimanded the Resident and they posted the A.D.O. to the worst station they could think of, and then when the trouble broke out and quite a lot of people were murdered and it became obvious the
Iâm not surprised no one else talks Kitiâitâs a pig! To begin with, you have to sing it, almost, âcos the same word means different things according to how you pitch it, tiny changes I could hardly hear at first, high to low or low to high, or with a dip in the middle, and so on. And most of the words have strong and weak forms, and you say things quite differently if youâre talking to a friend or a strangerâoh, lots more than just words and grammar to learn. Hausaâs childâs play compared.
For instance, counting. First you go to twenty on your fingers and toes. They all have different names, no pattern at all. The first twenty are man numbers, and the next twenty are baboon numbers, and then fox numbers, then spider numbers, then snake numbersâthoâ spiders have eight legs and no fingers or toes and snakes donât have anything at all! But at least youâve got to a hundred, so you put a stick on the ground and stand on it to remind yourself and start again! Even Elongo agrees itâs funny.
Heâs a dear. So intelligent and thoughtful. He quite understands that if I teach him English he mustnât put on side about it, specially in front of Ted. If thereâs one thing Ted hates itâs the educated native coming up from Lagos in a suit and a loud tie and talking law-court English and pretending he knows anything about how the real Africans think and feel! Iâm teaching Elongo A1 English. No slang. I read ten pages of Esmond before lessons to get me in the mood. (Good for me, too!)
Been up a week now, but hardly done any painting. Something called the harmattan started while I was illâyou look out in the morning and you think âOh, fog!â but it isnât. Itâs dust, blowing all the way down from the desert. Cold like fog, thoâ, specially after malaria. Couple of days back there was a fishing family down on our bank so I went down to do a picture and got them to pose for me. They were v. nice and smiling about it but after theyâd been standing still twenty minutes their poor teeth were chattering and they were pale grey all down one side! It made them look like photographic negatives! N.g. for painting. Anyway Iâm taking things easy âcos Iâve got to get myself properly well âcos next week weâre going on tour!
Itâs a bit trickyâme going, I mean. Thereâs absolutely no reason why I shouldnât, Ted says, but he ought to inform Mr de Lancey at Birnin Soko only he doesnât want to. You see, âcos of de L. and Ted being on opposite sides about KB and things heâs bound to try and do Ted down over anything Ted wants. He did his dâest to stop me coming at all, for a start, and now he just might try and think of some reason why I shouldnât go on tour. Ted canât go straight to Kaduna over de L.âs head, either. He has to be terribly careful about that. Even if it was something important, theyâd come down on him like a ton of bricks. He told me an awful story about an A.D.O. over in Gombe who discovered there was trouble coming and told his D.O. but the D.O. was lazy and didnât do anything so the A.D.O. wrote to the Resident. The Resident agreed with the A.D.O. and when he reported to Kaduna all they were interested in was the A.D.O. breaking the rules. They reprimanded the Resident and they posted the A.D.O. to the worst station they could think of, and then when the trouble broke out and quite a lot of people were murdered and it became obvious the
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